Yahoo! COO Asked to Hit the Pavement by CEO Marissa Mayer

Somewhere on the other side, Ray Charles is punching keys on a piano and singing "Hit the Road Jack," only he's changing the words to include Henrique De Castro in the lyrics. Apparently the departing chief operating officer (COO) of Yahoo has been on the outs with company chief Marissa Mayer for some time now, and in a regulatory filing, it was revealed that today is his last day.

"Mr. De Castro will receive the severance benefits provided for in his Employment Offer Letter, dated October 15, 2012, Severance Agreement, dated February 28, 2013, and equity award agreement," Yahoo stated in its Form 8-K filing with the SEC.

De Castro came on board to lead Yahoo's advertising business, though he struggled to replicate the success he had when he helped build Google's display ad business. Lest there was any doubt about who made the call to let him go, Kara Swisher over at Recode got her hands on an internal memo to Yahoo staff regarding De Castro's departure.

"During my own reflection, I made the difficult decision that our COO, Henrique De Castro, should leave the company. I appreciate Henrique's contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavors," Mayer wrote in the memo.

Mayer hired De Castro in October 2012, giving him a $600,000 yearly base salary plus an annual bonus that could effectively double his earnings. He also received $36 million in stock plus other incentives. His expensive hiring and subsequent firing goes down as one of Mayer's few blemishes on what's so far been a good run at Yahoo.